Henryk Sławik and József Antall on a card of the Polish Post

Maria Zawadzka, 16 November 2016
During the Second World War the Righteous Henryk Sławik and József Antall jointly rescued thousands of Jews. Those two figures are presented on the card “Righteous Among the Nations”, recently published by the Polish Post.

The author of the project is Joanna Czerwińska-Jędrych. The postcard depicts the words “Orphanage for Jewish children in Vac” written both in Polish and Hungarian. Photos of the heroes are presented where the postal charges usually appear.

In the illustrative part of the card we see a list of people rescued by Sławik and Antall, as well as a bilingual inscription: “Righteous Among the Nations: Henryk Sławik and József Antall”.

Below there are national emblems of Poland and Hungary. The card also includes the information: “From 1939 to 1944 in Hungary both Righteous, protectors of refugees, saved many thousands of Polish and Hungarian Jews”.

The 1,55 zloty card (148x105 mm) is printed on one side in an edition of 40 thousand copies. It is available on the website of the Polish Post. 

Henryk Sławik is called “the Polish Wallenberg”. It is estimated that Sławik rescued about 5,000 Jews.

After Poland’s defeat in 1939 as chairman of the Citizen Committee for Polish Refugees in Hungary he organized help for military internees and civilian refugees.

In cooperation with József Antall, representative of the Hungarian government, Sławik provided them with false papers that saved their lives in numerous cases, he also organized documents for Jews, testifying their so-called “Aryan” origin.

Together with József Antall and Church dignitaries, he founded an orphanage in the town of Vac near Budapest – Jewish children had been hiding there.

For his heroic deeds during the Second World War József Antall was honored with the Commander’s Cross with Star Polonia Restituta and the medal “Righteous Among the Nations”. His son was the first Prime Minister of democratic Hungary.

Henryk Sławik was arrested in 1944, after the Nazis entered Hungary. During the investigation he acted in a heroic way, taking all the responsibility for saving Jews upon himself and did not admit he knew Antall.

He was probably executed in August 1944 in the Nazi camp Mauthausen. Henryk Sławik was posthumously awarded with the title of the Righteous Among the Nations in 1977. More about Henryk Sławik.